Art Deco: A strong, striking style for graphic design

All old styles are destined to become cool again eventually. Good designers know this and great designers know how to work it. The call for “retro” has maybe never been louder than it is now and with the roaring 1920s taking culture by storm these days (Downton Abbey on TV, The Great Gatsby soon in theaters), we’re thinking Art Deco will be making a serious comeback in graphic design.

Deco is a strong, beautiful style. Here is the history you need to know, to do it right.

Art Deco

Art Deco, a term first coined in Paris in 1925, is a hard style to define. We can list its typical attributes – geometric shapes, bold curves, strong vertical lines, aerodynamic forms, motion lines, airbrushing and sunbursts galore – but this really does not do justice to the style. Memorize this list alone, and your design may still miss the Deco spirit.

For that, a greater context is required. So let’s take a visual tour of the 1910s, 20s and 30s – the cultural milieu in which Deco took form.

The Roaring 20s was a time of rapid cultural change. Transportation technologies (cars, trains, planes) were getting faster, buildings taller, cities more packed. It was also a time of incredible wealth, especially in the United States. The result of all this was a feeling of dizzying fragmentation, which you’ll see in the cubist and futurist artwork of the time, paired with an obsession with luxury, speed and power.

In a word: Art Deco.

Art Deco architecture

Note the strong vertical lines in Singapore’s Parkview building, the sunburst facade of New York City’s famed Chrysler building — the peak of Art Deco architecture — and the metallic embellishments on this building on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Art Deco patterns

New York’s Radio City Music Hall (below) is one big sunburst. The elevator in the Chrysler building is a collection of geometric shapes, curves, metal embellishments and vertical lines. The doorway façade top right is Deco at its most powerful… and slightly gaudy.

Art Deco objects

Art Deco posters

We move from architecture to graphic design with French designer A.M. Cassandre, its unparalleled leader.

Note the imposing power of the ship in “L’Atlantique,” the cubist and futurist inspiration in the posters for “Nord Express” and “Clipper 314,” and the flat geometric quality to Cassandre’s Pivolo ad — perhaps the most famous Art Deco poster of all time.

Deco typography

Last, but certainly not least, Art Deco has made an incredible impact on typography. A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur typeface, composed of thick base forms ornamented with thin filler lines, is nothing short of brilliant. Broadway and Peignot are two other Deco typefaces we see all the time.

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Any comments?

Loved the article, but just wanted to point out the smallest, most nit-picky thing; the photo of “Hollywood Boulevard LA” is a photo of a building on “Hollywood Boulevard” at Hollywood studios at Disney World. Interestingly enough, they use an abundance of Art Deco architecture both on that street and their “Sunset Boulevard”.

Thanks so much for that insight! We’ll add a note in the caption that it’s not the “real” Hollywood Boulevard 😉

Margaretha Mazura

Jun 5 2012

Thanks for the nice overview of a most exciting period. Let me add a type face on an advertising fan for the Savoy Hotel London, presumably around 1930 (I collect fans and Art Deco is one of my priority periods for advertising fans).